With the problematic introduction of the Solar Victoria rebate, we’ve seen a lot of noise in the media about what this means for solar companies. We’ve seen statements such as ‘d-day for the solar industry’, ‘the death of the Victorian solar industry’ and more.

Naturally, our existing and prospective clients have been contacting us, wanting to know how Gippsland Solar has been affected, and what our future looks like with these challenges.

We are happy to confirm that we are not just surviving, but thriving! It has been a challenging few months, but our preparation and planning has enabled us to secure a rebate for many dozens of our clients.

Our approach of being organized and ready for this new program when it opened has meant that we were able to secure an allocation for dozens of our clients.

The recent announcement that Solar Victoria will add another 23,000 rebate this year is great news for consumers, but demand is still expected to be much higher than the rebate allocations. If you are looking to secure this rebate, contact us ASAP for a chat about your options.

Many of our (so far unsuccessful) applicants are happy to wait until the first of next month to secure their position, knowing that we will give them the best chance of success. Others have given up on the Solar Victoria rebate altogether, and decided to press ahead and enjoy the savings now rather than wait in the face of uncertainty.

Our decision a few years ago to diversify into solar for business, commercial installations, EV charging stations and microgrid projects has enhanced our long-term stability. We have several months of commercial work ahead of us, and plenty of other non-rebate work.

We recognize that it is a tough time for many residential focused solar companies, but for existing and prospective Gippsland Solar clients, you can be sure that we are not downsizing. Our business was strong before this unexpected rebate came along, and it has not affected our vision or direction.

Gippsland Solar will continue to power ahead into the future, providing peace of mind for you, the client, and secure employment for these wonderful people that lead us every day.

Our commercial team at Gippsland Solar have just put the finishing touches on this 500kW system for Wonthaggi Hospital, completing a 12-month rollout of installations across eastern Victorian health services.

At the time this was our largest contract; a 1.5MW portfolio of solar delivered across 8 hospitals and health services across Omeo, Orbost, Maffra, Wonthaggi, Sale and San Remo.

These were some of the toughest and most complex sites we have ever worked on, and our team had to tailor every project schedule to meet the operational requirements of each hospital.

Not only were these projects rolled out seamlessly, but we have benefited greatly from the experience, investing heavily in new processes and systems that have taken our commercial installation team to a new level.

We’ve also picked up a couple of new permanent employees from the hospitals as we rolled out the installations, further underlining the benefits of using a local provider for regional projects.

Thanks to the team at Health Purchasing Victoria for entrusting Gippsland Solar to deliver this rollout. We are very proud of our achievements, and the financial and environmental benefits that will flow to each health service for decades to come.

The term ‘heat pump’ has been a dirty word around Gippsland for a number of years. Many heat pumps have had issues with noise and reliability, because in our opinion, these systems really weren’t designed for our climate. For this reason, we didn’t have confidence in recommending heat pumps in Gippsland.

Until now.

The Reclaim C02 heat pump has been designed from the ground up for our region, with higher efficiency, minimal noise (37dB to be exact), and some smart controls to take advantage of excess solar power. By storing excess solar power in hot water, it is also a great alternative to battery storage, at a far lower cost.

We have installed dozens of systems across the region, and the results are everything we had hoped for and more. One client has seen their daily hot water consumption drop from ~13kWh per day to around 2.5kWh, and mostly fed by excess solar power.

If you are looking for a reliable, quiet, and cost-effective way to heat your water, this is the product for you.

The Gippsland Solar team are proud to announce that they have just put the finishing touches on an epic 200kW system at the new Phillip Island Nature Park’s Penguin Parade Visitors Centre.

Not only did we pull out all stops to complete this project for Kane Constructions on a tight deadline, but we have been nominated by Kane for a sub-contractor Excellence Award at their gala evening in August.

When it came time to upgrade his heating/cooling, Our Gippsland Solar Retail Manager, Mitch Richardson, was a little hesitant. Built in the 80s, his house sits on a sloping block with up to 2m stumps at the lowest point, paper thin windows and crumby old roof insulation. The previous split system would run at full-noise to warm the home.

– Enter the LG WH24 7.1kW reverse cycle split system –

Probably as a result of his role as Retail Manager at Gippsland Solar, Mitch can be a bit of a hawk on energy usage. As such, he was a little apprehensive about putting in a new split system as he expected that a more effective unit would come at the cost of higher energy usage.

Following the installation, Mitch selected the “AI” mode and punched in 24deg, then ran a pretty gruelling test over the weekend…

Saturday 8:00am – Sunday 9:30pm at 24deg with all the interior doors open in the home; that’s 36 hours of continuous runtime!

Given the rated input of the unit when heating is approx 1.9kW, he braced himself with the expectation of around 30-40kWh of consumption.

13kWh – The total amount of energy consumed to heat an old, chilly home to a toasty 24degs for a full weekend was a measly 13kWh. To put that into context, given that their off-peak energy costs are $0.135/kWh, that was a grand total of $1.75 for the weekend, or 4 cents per hour!

By comparison, the old space heater costs just over 35c/hour to heat a single room, let along the whole home. After they factored in their solar contribution, their heating and cooling was chewed up and spat out with change.

Mitch said:“Grant at Gippsland Heating and Cooling was super easy to work with and I had complete faith in his recommendation which has ultimately proved to be the best fit. The installers were all brilliant. Andy, Liam and Darcy were all clean, polite and efficient and despite the various challenges in this particular job, nothing was too much hassle. The electrician, Jake was happy to come in after hours to get the old unit decommissioned and the new unit all wired up. After everything was complete, Jake came in to make sure the unit was functioning and went through the operations with me too which was brilliant. Stef in the admin team was no exception either!”

You may be surprised to learn how efficient new split systems are, if you have an old split system at your home it could well be driving up your winter energy costs.

You may have heard the good news, but we’d like to confirm that rebates for solar power, battery storage, and solar hot water will return on July 1.

From July 1, if you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be entitled to ONE OF the following rebates:

Up to $2,225 off the cost of a solar power system

Up to $4,838 off the cost of a battery systemfor eligible postcodes (only 1,000 rebates are available)

Up to $1,000 off the cost of a solar hot water or solar heat pump system

The great news is that if you already have solar power or solar hot water, you can still claim the battery storage rebate – but only if you didn’t already claim a ‘Solar Victoria’ rebate in the past year.

We have been flooded with enquiries, and customers accepting quotes for installation after July 1. We currently have 35 electricians/installers working full-time, plus 6 teams of trusted delivery partners to help with installation demand, but our lead times are expected to stretch out very quickly.

We are now able to cover the rebates as a point of sale discount, reducing your upfront outlay significantly, and ensuring a much easier process to install solar under this program. Remember, you need to use a Clean Energy Council Approved Retailer (like Gippsland Solar) in order to claim this rebate.

If you are looking to secure the rebates before they run out (again), please contact us on 1300 GIP SOL or via the website for a chat about your options, and a no obligation proposal to suit your needs.

We are excited to announce the official opening of our new interactive showroom in Bairnsdale on Saturday June 29!

Our regional manager, Landon Moss, a passionate East Gippsland local who has worked hard to grow the Gippsland Solar footprint in the region. We’d also like to thank the East Gippsland Shire, local councillors, businesses and residents, for rewarding our investment into local jobs and economic development.

As Gippsland Solar’s East Gippsland business has grown, we have invested a percentage of sales into sponsorships and socially responsible projects in the region. We have donated a $25,000 off-grid system for the FLOAT art gallery at Lake Tyers, sponsored the East Gippsland Business Awards two years running, and donated thousands of dollars to community groups and sporting clubs. If you have any idea for future community projects we could support, please let us know!

This new showroom is a significant investment, and will transform an empty building on the highway into a cutting-edge interactive product showroom where East Gippslanders can find honest advice on meeting their energy needs.

We invite you to come and celebrate the opening of our new East Gippsland interactive showroom. We’ll have a free BBQ, free solar-powered milkshakes from Gippsland Jersey, kids prizes, and East Gippsland Mayor Natalie O’Conell will officially open the showroom at 11am.

After years of hard work and dedication by the Earthworker team in Morwell, we are thrilled to announce that Gippsland Solar are now offering their stainless steel storage tanks with our new Reclaim heat pump.

It was an heartwarming trip to the Earthworker factory this week, seeing their dream of a Latrobe Valley manufacturing facility become a reality.

Our new solar heat pump is a game changer for solar power customers. With guaranteed performance down to minus 10 degrees, and smart technology to use excess solar power, this heat pump is the result of years of development between Gippsland Solar and our Japanese manufacturers.

Now we can also couple the heat pump with a locally manufactured stainless steel storage tank (with a 15 year warranty), for approx. $600 more than a glass lined tank.

Gippsland Solar now employ over 70 full-time staff, and nearly 100 including sub-contractors. The next phase of our business plan is to reassess our procurement across the board, and identify more local supply chains to create jobs in the valley and wider Gippsland.

We may have expanded well beyond the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland recently, but creating jobs for the local region during this transition is very close to our heart.

For more information on our Reclaim heat pump, see the page on our website

Congrats to Dan Musil, the Earthworker team, and their canine mascot Jade. You have created a tremendous opportunity for the Latrobe Valley, they legacy of which will be felt for many decades to come.

If you are considering your solar hot water options, contact us on 1300 447 765 or via our website.

Gippsland Solar have been at the forefront of the solar for business industry. We installed the first 100kW system in our region back in 2013, and we are collecting many years of data across thousands of sites.

Sporting Legends Club installed a 100kW system in mid-2015, at a cost of $120,000 at the time. And after 3.5 years, they have already saved $120,000 on their electricity bills, and achieved a complete financial return.

The board at Sporting Legends were quite skeptical about the return they would see from this system (there weren’t many other systems of this size in the region). We deliberately took a conservative position, so that they would actually enjoy greater savings than we promised.

By collecting remote monitoring data over the life of the system, we were able to show them that they have indeed achieved these savings, and they are now looking to invest in another 100kW on the business extension.

Being able to prove these savings, and monitor our client’s system proactively, provides us with a great amount of satisfaction. Now we can show other businesses exactly what they will realise in savings, with a happy client like Sporting Legends to prove it.

If you are considering solar for your business or workplace, contact us on 1300 447 765 or via our website.

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of industry leading solar company, Sustainable Electrical & Automation, and their incredible pipeline of large-scale projects.

Brendan Laidlaw has long been regarded as one of Australia’s foremost renewable energy experts. His team have delivered many MegaWatts of complex projects, for some of Australia’s biggest companies and organisations.

The acquisition of SEA, and Brendan’s full-time workforce of 16, takes our workforce up over 70 employees (plus two dozen subcontractors). This provides GipSol with the largest in-house workforce of any solar and storage provider in the country. We now have 38 full-time installers in-house, covering the entire length and breadth of Victoria.

With enhanced specialization in microgrids, Peer to Peer trading platforms, demand response and more, we are about to announce some phenomenal projects to the market. It’s a sizable investment on our behalf, but one that will position GipSol at the forefront of the industry, now and long into the future.

Directors Andrew & Kelly McCarthy, welcome to Brendan and his wife Fiona to the GipSol team. We can’t wait to join forces with you, and create a new benchmark for technical excellence and innovation.